Current News

Call for Papers
Building Professional Pathways for New Americans:
The National Conference on Refugee Professional Recertification

Abstracts due March 5, 2009.

Foreign-trained educators, physicians, nurses, engineers and other professionals arriving in the United States as refugees find it difficult, expensive and time-consuming to obtain the qualifications required to practice their profession. They receive limited financial assistance and advice from resettlement agencies mandated to help them achieve self-sufficiency in only a few months. In a time of economic crisis their situation—and the task of those who work with them—is extremely challenging.

RefugeeWorks is the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement’s training and technical assistance arm for employers and others who work with refugee professionals, as well as refugees themselves. A national conference convened by RefugeeWorks will discuss the many issues related to professional retraining, job-seeking and recertification for refugees in the United States. Participants will include resettlement personnel, refugees, employment specialists, educators, employers and others who work with refugee professionals. The conference will take place at the Kellogg Center of Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, June 22–24, 2009.

Sessions will cover the following topics:

Post-secondary Retraining Programs
Community colleges are at the forefront of professional retraining, qualifying exam preparation and ESOL instruction for refugees and immigrants. Organizers of successful CC and university programs for foreign-trained healthcare professionals, teachers and others will discuss their initiatives, and refugee professionals will describe their experiences in such programs.

Partnerships across Sectors
No resettlement agency works effectively alone. Government officials, advocacy and community organizations, professional associations, educators and employers can join forces to help refugee professionals prepare for work, obtain credentials and find appropriate jobs in their chosen field.

Policies, Laws and Reforms
Economic crisis presents opportunities for change. New immigration laws and government policies could make life and work easier or more difficult for both refugee professionals and resettlement agencies. What changes are under consideration, and how likely is their adoption? What role can civic organizations play in immigration reform?

Success Stories
Job developers, program managers and employers can point to success stories of refugee professionals who have overcome great obstacles on the road to integration in U.S. society. What do these stories have in common, and how can they be replicated?

These sessions, each consisting of several 15-minute presentations and discussion, will take place on June 22. Work groups will consider follow-up actions and report back to the conference on June 23. In addition, roundtable discussions will take place June 23 on the following topics: the long-term view of integration; what happens between arrival and recertification; refugees’ professional expectations; cultural orientation; the effects of the economic situation; and psychological counseling for refugees. Paper presenters are welcome to participate in these groups and roundtables. A Michigan-focused job fair for employers and refugee professionals will follow in Detroit on June 24.

Individual paper abstracts should be limited to 200 words and sent to Linda Rabben, conference organizer (Lrabben@lirs.org), by March 5, 2009. Proposals for additional sessions and roundtables, as well as information inquiries, should also be sent to Ms. Rabben as soon as possible; please include the names and contact information for all confirmed and potential participants.

MSU's Department of Anthropology has been ranked #1 in the United States by Public Anthropology’s Public Outreach Assessment Project. Rankings were based on the number and nature of programs focusing on public issues and public outreach that were associated with a department, the degree to which department faculty members engaged in public outreach activities, the nature of the activities engaged in, and the degree to which faculty members were cited in prominent printed media related to their activities. A total of 394 schools were included in the sample. See the project report on the Public Anthropology Web site.

Saints’ Rest Project Receives Governer's Award
One of six Governor’s Awards for Historic Preservation was presented to MSU for the Saints’ Rest Archaeological Project on May 18, 2006.

MSU receives CASE Circle of Excellence Silver Medal
MSU has received an award from CASE: Council for Advancement and Support of Education for its promotion of the Saints’ Rest excavations. We have been told that MSU University Relations will receive its Circle of Excellence Silver Medal Award in the Special Public and Community Relations category for 2006 for the Saints’ Rest Archaeological Project

Faculty Member's Books Win Awards
Robert A. Birmingham and Lynne Goldstein, Aztalan: Mysteries of an Ancient Indian Town, won The Midwest Independent Publishers Association Merit Award for the History category, 2006.

Calling Cards: Theory and Practice in the Study of Race, Gender, and Culture , edited by Jacqueline Royster and Ann Marie Simpkins, received the 2006 College English Association of Ohio Nancy Dasher Award. Susan Krouse, faculty member in Anthropology, has a chapter in this volume, titled: "Transforming Images: The Scholarship of American Indian Women."

Andrea Louie’s book Chineseness Across Borders: Renegotiating Chinese Identities in China and the United States (Duke University Press, 2004) received the Association for Asian American Studies Book Award in the category of Social Sciences for titles published in 2004. Archived News